Ric Flair vs. Sting

[5.0] "The best match of the show, though not a classic. It served to put Sting over, however. In-ring quality: 1.5/5. Stakes: 0.75/2. Justification: 1/1. Placement on the card: 1/1. Suspense: 1/1. Bonus/penalty: none. Total: 5.25/10. Match watched on the WCW YouTube channel."

[4.0] "Luger v Flair and Luger v Sting were better matches than this one. Match is just kinda there, nothing memorable. This was Stings third match on the show and his no selling made no sense and annoyed me."

[8.0] "The best match on the show, thanks in large degree to Flair's exceptional stamina allowing him to stay on offense for a long stretch without looking like he'd already wrestled twice. Sting naturally held up his end of the bargain and the pair were always great opponents."

[7.0] "Some good heels tendencies from Flair as he teases a turn, allowing the crowd to be fully in favour of Sting, but unfortunately they don't really care because they were sapped of all life by the previous match. Not the best match these two ever had, the flow didn't seem right, and was hurt by a lack of title on the line."

[8.0] "4 stars great match & my favourite part about this is the fact it is the last match on this show which I don't like watching"

[6.0] "It was alright, but me and the crowd didn't have much energy for it. So many matches beforehand got the people tired, so even though the contest was pretty good it didn't get the reaction that it probably would have if it was Ric's and Sting's only match on this show."

[7.0] "This was essentially a shorter version of their previous match. Sting dominates, Flair uses either rest holds or underhanded/shady tactics to regain control, Sting takes control once again. Sting got his feel good moment here and won the title."

[7.0] "The residual effect of those god awful Wild Samoans matches sapped some energy out of this for me, but I still thought it was pretty good overall. Sting shows a lot of charisma here and clearly looks like a star on the rise. My biggest issue was the blatant stalling by Flair at the end as time was running out. Ignoring that, this was fun for the most part, although clearly not at the level of their best work."

[7.0] "This is nowhere near the level of their other matches, but it's very good given that this was both guys third match of the night and they only had 15 minutes to work with."

[5.0] "This is the closest thing to a classical Flair match as you'll get on this show. There's not a whole lot to it. The only real thing worthy of praise is that these two are both very good at selling the fatigue, especially when you compare them to how they wrestled earlier on the show. It's pretty whatever as a match, just very standard, except with two exhausted people. For some reason even when there's like 30 seconds to go Flair has absolutely zero urgency trying to win (? ) and takes his time leisurely putting on the Figure Four even though Luger being able to withstand the Figure Four until the time limit elapsed is what screwed him over earlier. Dumb."

[7.0] "This was a nice/feel good way to end the show; Sting beating Flair finally and winning the tournament. Flair is still a heel here, and out of respect for the talents of the Stinger has decided to bring him into the newly reformed Four Horsemen. This gets stuff rolling for the future of a Flair /Sting rivalry the next year. This was just barely my favourite match of the night; this and Flair/Luger were both quite good."

[7.0] "This was probably the match of the night. Personally, I wouldn't have had Sting win here, as to make the Great American Bash match seem more of an upset. But they really wanted him to be a star, something which he would accomplish over the next few years. This was a good match, but not outstanding."

[8.0] "This is essentially a sprint of their 1st match which is a good thing because we don't have to go through the boring 1st half of the match like we did last time. The babyface/heel dynamic is great here, and I loved the tease of the draw at the end of the match only for Sting to get the win out of nowhere.****"

[6.0] "Flair threw Sting outside the ring. Flair sent Sting into the guard rail, and back in the ring with a delayed vertical suplex. Flair continued with a knee drop and a double underhook suplex. Sting performed a clothesline out of the corner, and Flair rolled out of the ring. Sting had the advantage with a suplex into the ring and mounted punches. After a Stinger splash, Sting applied the Scorpion Deathlock, but Flair reached the ropes. Flair performed a shin breaker, and applied the figure four leglock, but Sting reached the ropes. Flair then targeted Sting's left leg. Flair performed a shin breaker and a seated senton onto the leg. Flair then attempted the figure four leglock, but Sting countered it into an inside cradle, and pinned Flair to win the match and the Iron Man tournament."

[7.0] "This was a fitting conclusion to the show, but the work wasn't on par with the rating this received. It's good enough, but I'm not sure it even broke the 4-star range. ***3/4"

[8.0] "This was a really well-booked and well-executed main event to determine the winner of the singles tournament. Sting winning in the same way Flair had a win a match earlier in the night was a nice touch, and the two did a nice job of sewing the seeds for a future rivalry."

[8.0] "What a great match to end this ... hmmm.. unique show. Flair just looks and feels more natural when working as a heel, while Sting was on fire as the popular babyface, and it just clicked. This was simply spectacular, the match of the night, and one can only imagine what it could've been with something actually important on the line. [****1/4]"

[6.0] "Not bad, but not to the level of their CoC1 match for me. I guess both guys must have been spent by this point in the night. But to win the thing on a roll up, albeit in the last minute, is just a bit boring. ***1/4"

[6.0] "Was a solid match but hoenstly nothing on this card to me is worth adding to the match guide. A few decent matches, nothing terrible but nothing worth checking out imo."

[8.0] "This is the best match of Starrcade '89. Ric Flair tries everything to beat Sting but things do not go in his favor. It's perfect to get Sting as one of the top stars of the federation. Really a great story with the victory in the last minute of time. Too bad the mood wasn't at the top because of the tournament. ***3/4"

[7.0] "I gave this match *** 1/4. This was too similar to their first for me. I also thought the time wasting that both wrestlers were doing, whilst being constantly reminded of the time limit, was stupid and did not make sense"

[4.0] "I was very soured by Sting's constant no selling in this match. From the way he acts you'd think he was a Road Warrior going against some scrub, but instead he just walks through a lot of offense from Ric freakin' Flair. Flair does a great job of slowly getting more heelish as the match goes, but honestly you'd do much better to watch Flair's match with Luger from earlier in the night. Sting was not at all ready for the main event at this point, even being carried by Flair."